From the swanky homes of Colaba and Cuffe Parade, only a handful shrugged off their political lethargy on Tuesday. After all the awareness campaigns by NGOs, the turnout was almost as low as in the Lok Sabha polls.

Only 98,618 registered voters, representing 35.89 per cent of the electorate, went to polling booths in areas from Cuffe Parade, Marine Drive, Esplanade, Fort and CST up to Charni Road’s Fanaswadi, leaving Colaba stuck with the tag of the constituency with the lowest turnout. The Lok Sabha turnout had been 35.81 per cent.

Rishi Alwani, 24, product manager with Milestone Interactive, says he could not manage time out of his work schedule. “I know a vote can make a difference; the point is we haven’t seen any change in my area all these years.” He won’t accept the generalisation that the Colaba crowd is just too-rich-to-bother-to-vote. “It is not a question of us being too rich, I think it’s more to do with townies being too lazy to vote,” he says.

Neera Punj says she failed to understand why scores of people did not come out of their highrises of Cuffe Parade, Marine Drive and Churchgate. “These are educated people and could have done so much by casting their votes.”

Colaba comprises areas that boast wealthy citizens and developed localities. It has a high literacy rate, between 75 and 82 per cent.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the popular belief was that South Mumbai would turn out in large numbers to condemn the 26/11 attacks in five locations within the constituency: Taj and Oberoi hotels, Nariman House (Colaba), CST and Cama Hospital.

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